Process of preparing flax.



To all whom it may concern:

ran snares 4 earner easier shorten H. CAMPBELL, or TORONTO, ONTARIO,CANADA.

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sesame.

No Drawing.

I CAMPBELL,

a citizen of Canada, and a resident of Toronto, in the county of Yorkand Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes of Preparing Flax, of which the following is aspecification. This invention relates to the preparation of flax for thevarious purposes of the textile industry, and has in View a quicker andmore economical treatment, and which will produce greater yield thanpreviously ex isting processes, all as now will be explained;

Be it known that I, Gnoson H.

reference being had to the following specilication and claims.

In carrying out this process flax stalks,

or straw, in a dry state are passed through a breaking machine, whichremoves the larger portion of the various inc'rust-ing matters orshives, the diminution in weight of the straw treated beng about of thetotal original weight.

To render the stalks sutliciently dry, they may be either air dried ordried by the application of heat, the stalks being for this purposeplaced on suitable shelves or frames, below which are placed pipesthrough which passes hot water or steam, heated to a mod eratetemperature. For most uses and in most instances ordinary air dryingwill be sufficient, but when the flax stalks are out before the seedsare matured, to get flax of the highest grade, and if it is desired tobreak the stalks shortly after cutting, drying by heat will generally bepreferable or necessary.

The dried stalks previous to breaking are lightly sprayed or temperedwith water alone or water containing in solution a suitable chemicalused in very small proportion such as ammonia, sodium carbonate or soap.A small percentage of a suitable oil such as cotton seed oil or parafiinoil may also be held in the alkaline solution in the form of anemulsion. The amount of liquid Specification of Letters Patent.

The stalks coming from the breaking'ma-, chines as above described andwhich still- Patent-ed Feb. 3, l9 lei-i; 7 Application filed I'Earch 11,1910. Serial No. 54.85%.

use as binder twine, grocers twine and the i like; a I

I For use in the various forms of clot-her yarn the product coming fromthe breaking machine will have to be treated so as to more perfectlyeliminate the incrusting or shive constituents. This is done by aprocess of rotting which will now be described, and which maybe appliedeither immediately after the stalks come fromthe breaking ma chines orafter the fiber has been subjected to the various operations ofscutching, hackling, spinning and weaving. In each of these variousoperations tending to convert the broken stalks into yarn or cloth themas terial progressively loses a certain amount of the adheringincrusting material or shives but not all, the remaining port-ion beingre moved by the process of fermentation, retting. There are severalmethods of fermentation retting that may be used for the purpose, theprocess of field retting or dew retting being here described inconnection with the previous operation of breaking. For this purpose thebroken flax straw is spread upon meadows or other forms ofopen fieldsand exposed until the residual incrusting matter adhering to the fiberhas become sufliciently brittle to be readily removed by subsequentmechanioal manipulations such as passing the material through breakingmachines, scutching and beating machines or subjecting them to theaction of other forms of machines or to manual shive removingoperations. The rotting may be performed in stages, a portion of theshives being removed after the first exposure and theirsmainder afterthe second exposure, which will also have a bleaching eifeet to acertain extent.

By the breaking of the dry stalks without rotting,- the greater portionof the shives is eliminated at once whereby the work to be done duringthe subsequent step of retting is very materially diminished and thusfacilitated and shortened. The material on account of the less;percentage ot'incrust-ing matter contained will also be much lighterthan when ordinary field retting withoutprevious breaking is used. Thefact that the retting period is shortened has also the unretted flaxstalks.

advantage of a very considerable increase in the yield of flax. In theordinary process of field retting, the yield is only about 10% while bythis process it is increased to 15% or even 25%.

After the exposure of the broken flax material for a suflicient lengthof time to make retting practically complete the flax stalks are passedthrough a breaking machine preferably with much finer grooves than. wereused in the original breaking of the dry and If the fiber is retted inthe form of yarn, the latter may consist of single strands. If the fiberis converted into cloth before retting this course has the advantagethat the incrusting matters'are progressively eliminated from the fiberduringthe operations of twisting the strands and weaving, although thecloth requires more prolonged mechanical treatment after the retting toeliminate all particles of the separated and broken shi'ves. Whenunretted flax fiber has been converted into cloth or fabric theoperation of field retting will be accompanied by bleaching to a greaterextent than when more of the shive material is adhering to the fiber,rendering it in fact a simultaneous operation of rotting and bleaching.

lVhat I claim as new is:

1. In the art of preparing linen fibers, the improvement which consistsin drying, spraying or tempering, and then'breaking flax stalks, andretting the resulting material.

2. In the art of preparing linen fibers, the improvement which consistsin drying, spraying or tempering and then breaking flax stalks, andscutching and rotting the resulting material.

3. In the art of preparing linen fibers, the improvement which consistsin drying, spraying or tempering fiaX stalks with an aqueous emulsion ofanoil, then breaking the stalks, and retting the resulting material.

4. In the art of preparing linen fibers, the improvement which consistsin drying, spraying or tempering and then. breaking flax stalks,converting the resulting material into yarn and retting the latter.

Signed at New York in the county of N. Y. and State of N. Y. this 18thday of May A. D. 1909.

GEORGE H. CAMPBELL.

Witnesses C. A. O. Rosnnn, MABELLE A. DAVIS.

